By Monwabisi Jimlongo
The vacant South African junior-bantamweight title fight between Mdantsane boxer Enathi Stelle and Phumelela ‘The Truth’ Cafu from Duncan Village, scheduled for Saturday, 16 December, is in doubt.
This followed after negotiations between fight promoter Ayanda Matiti from Xaba Promotions and Stelle’s manager Andile Mshumpela collapsed on Thursday.
“We have run into problems regarding the fight against Cafu. We got an offer on Tuesday, but we didn’t accept it because of the low purse. We felt that Stelle could make that kind of money from defending his Eastern Cape title, not from fighting for the SA title,” Mshumpela said.
“We wanted equal treatment because this is a vacant title and no one is a champion here. Seeing that we were not agreeing on the purse, we then approached another promoter who showed interest in staging the fight. He offered more money to both boxers. The promoter even drew up contracts and I gave Cafu’s contract to Ayanda Matiti, who didn’t accept it. Instead, he told me that he had moved on.”
Seeing that his efforts were hitting a brick wall, Mshumpela approached Boxing South Africa (BSA) seeking the regulatory body’s intervention.
“I have written to BSA explaining everything. I want this fight to go for purse bids,” Mshumpela remarked.
Meanwhile, our sources told us that Western Cape junior-bantamweight champion Lwando Mgabi, who is originally from Duncan Village in East London, was offered a deal to fight against his homeboy Cafu, but his handlers declined the offer.
Efforts to get a comment from Matiti unfortunately failed as he didn’t pick up our calls.
